Spumante

Translating as the Italian for ‘foaming’, spumante is a coverall word for Italian sparkling wines. Wines of all styles may feature spumante on their label and often they are differentiated on their labels through their dry or sweetness and also their regional information.

Italy is the world’s largest producer of sparkling wines which means there simply hundreds of different spumante styles and variations to try. Spumante tends to be classified in terms of sweetness so you will find the driest spumante labelled ‘secco’ whilst a sweet variation will be labelled ‘dolce’. Those which are in the middle of the two tend to be labelled ‘semi-secco’ and there are plenty of different spumante in each of the different categories.

The growing region is also important in the labelling and the differences between spumante. Grapes which are grown in the popular Piedmonth growing region tend to be labelled ‘moscato’ whilst Veneto spumante are labelled as ‘prosecco’. Asti Spumanti is one of the most popular and recognisable Italian sparkling wines and has become known simply as Asti in many instances because of its popularity.

The majority of Italian spumante are not meant for ageing and whilst it won’t go old, as such, it won’t taste as good as when first bought if you keep it over a long period of time. Most spumante are white but there are blush and rose alternatives and even the occasional red sparkling wine produced in Italy.